1/ Example: I've been working part-time for MNA for about a year now. There's a prevailing consensus (not monolithic) amongst the Korean American brothers that much of MNA's assessment standards are unhelpful, unrealistic, or inapplicable for Korean-American planters.

https://twitter.com/derekradney/status/1329850063493992455

2/ Money: Most of our churches and presbyteries are still mostly immigrant populated with little extra funds for supporting church planters or RUF TEs. It's not realistic to fundraise the amount MNA/RUF sometimes requires us to or for our wives not to work.

1/ IMO one of the bigger issues with the PCA is that we want multi-ethnicity but white cultural normativity. But we can't have a multi-ethnic denomination without a plurality of cultural normativities depending on the space and context.

https://twitter.com/drantbradley/status/1329782682432266240

2/ Just because people of different races speak the same language doesn't mean cultural normativities will automatically dissipate either. Those cultural barriers will continue to hinder most minorities from feeling welcomed in majority culture spaces.

1/ #BreonnaTaylor
An excerpt from a sermon preached by Rev. Francis Grimké, a Black Presbyterian minister, on November 20, 1900: "Whether their silence is the result of cowardice, or of blunted moral sensibility, it has operated equally against [Black people]. 2/ This is the charge I make against the Anglo-American pulpit today. Its silence has been interpreted as an approval of these horrible outrages. Bad men have been encouraged to continue their acts of lawlessness and brutality.

1/ We're currently observing the fruit of a century-long, anti-science attitude within some circles of American evangelicalism. Public health officials are applying the scientific method in real-time: 2/ making adjustments to projections, correcting prior hypotheses, taking note of new observations, and repeatedly going back to the drawing board. This is what scientists do and how they arrive at conclusions, a process that usually takes years (if not, decades).

1/ In the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9-13), Jesus teaches us to "Your kingdom come...on earth as it is in heaven" before we pray for individual needs of sustenance (v11), reconciliation (v12) & overcoming temptation (v13). But kingdoms are built on & sustained by institutions/systems. 2/ To pray God's Kingdom in heaven come to earth is to pray for the institutions & systems (& the cultures those institutions cultivate) of that Kingdom to come to earth too. This is contrasted to the hypocrites, oftentimes the religious leaders in power, who pray superficially.

1/ After witnessing the rise of Jim Crow, Francis Grimké, a Black Presbyterian Pastor, wrote in 1916 that churches ought to make us "stronger, better, more determined than ever to do right." And when they stop pursuing this central task, they forfeit their right to exist: 2/ "A church is of value to us just in proportion as it helps us spiritually: as its services tend to build up in Christian character and life. If it doesn't help to make us stronger, better, more determined than ever to do right, it is of no value to us.

1/ Should Christians always *just* preach the gospel regardless of the situation?

When a husband is physically abusing his wife, we don't say, "Just preach the gospel." Instead we say, "Preach the gospel and LIVE OUT the gospel by seeking justice." 2/ When human trafficking occurs in a community, we don't say, "Just preach the gospel." Instead we say, "Preach the gospel and LIVE OUT the gospel by seeking justice."

1/ Why do POCs always seem so angry? Why don’t western Christians seem to “get” POCs?

Western Christian pietism's insistence upon the spirituality of the individual decouples liturgies of lament from corporate experiences of anger, sadness, heartache, fear, and doubt. 2/ This ultimately prevents western Christian pietists from truly empathizing with marginalized communities and confuses their anger, sadness, heartache, fear, and doubt as immaturity, lacking faith and self-control, virtue signaling, and unrighteous anger.

/start
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of the younger generation of Christians seem to differ from the majority of the older generation of Christians in the following ways: 1. Whereas the older generation sees Christian good works as more charity and volunteering, the younger generation see Christian good works as not just charity and volunteering but also as pursuing systemic justice.

A thread about the church and COVID-19:

Joseph’s appointment by Pharaoh as the viceregent of Egypt (Gen 41:40) is an intermittent Adamic fulfillment of the First Adam’s enthronement over the earth as Yahweh’s viceregent (Gen 1:28). But just like Adam capitulated his role as viceregent, Joseph’s rule was imperfect in that his authority derived from a foreign king with false claims to godhood. Yet, just as Joseph derives his authority from one greater than himself and rules with divine authority as a

1/ Be careful not to reinterpret Brandt Jean's #forgiveness into narratives complicit to white supremacy. POC forgiveness over injustice is weaponized (esp. against our Black brothers & sisters) too often and some will use Brandt's example to shun future outrage against racism. 2/ By exemplifying Brandt's forgiveness without addressing the systemic racism that got us here in the first place, we're in danger of placing the burden of reform on the oppressed ("Why can't you just forgive and move on?", "Why are you always so fixed on the past?",

1/ @drchanequa THANK YOU for this clear and succinct article. I want to quote the entire post but character limits prevent me from doing so. The whole piece is absolutely fire.

tinyurl.com/y43o5gmr 2/ “The people of color who joined [these multiracial churches], then, would be those who preferred white middle-class culture or who were highly motivated to code-switch. In these contexts, failure or refusal to code-switch – perhaps by clapping on the upbeat,...

1/ “Some of the people who raised an alarm, my mom included, were themselves survivors of abuse. At times, skeptics wielded this against them like a weapon: ‘Survivors always oversexualize everything,’ they said...

https://twitter.com/mboorstein/status/1171013124499169285

2/...”imposing their experiences on everything around them,’ so they couldn’t be trusted either.”

Reading this breaks my heart and reminds me of how unfamiliar most western Christians are with trauma and victims of trauma.

The more I read from orthodox, marginalized Christian voices from home and abroad (i.e., Francis Grimké, MLK, Richard Wurmbrand, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Chinese Christians today, and Korean Christians during Japanese Occupation and North Korean Christians today, etc.), /1 the more I'm noticing a common acuity in the discernment of their respective cultures. I'm more convinced this pattern is not by chance but is an anointing by God to use the weakest, smallest, and most oppressed peoples to prophetically speak into their societies (1Cor1:27). /2

#Reparations were among the most glaring fruits of the Pyongyang Revival of 1907:

"Repentance was by no means confined to confession and tears. Peace waited upon reparation, wherever reparation was possible." (1/4) "We had our hearts torn again and again during those days by the return of little articles and money that had been stolen from us during the years. It hurt so to see them grieve." (2/4)

Hearing a lot of chatter on social media from Christians against #reparations, quoting atheist people of color as their authority. Still not hearing a genuine Christian/theological case AGAINST reparations. Here's mine FOR reparations. by @dukekwondc

#MigrantCaravans
The Western church needs the global church's voice (including POC minorities and refugees in the West) more than ever before. The global church is best equipped with the experiential wisdom to teach the Western church how to read the Bible in its human context: Written when God's people were refugees or part of a migrant caravan: Gen, Exod, Lev, Num, Deut, Josh, Judg, and Ruth.

Written when God's people were defending against foreign invaders: 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kgs, 1-2 Chr, Ps, Isa, Jer, Hos, Amos, Obad, Jon, Mic, Nah, Hab, and Zeph.

Not gonna lie. The work of racial reconciliation can be more exhausting than encouraging most of the time. Few of us wake up in the morning thinking about different ways to call out cultural sins and power structures with the intention of offending our friends & burning bridges. I doubt any of us actually enjoys being criticized publicly and gossiped about behind our backs for “race-baiting,” especially by other Christians. Interestingly enough, I never knew what it meant to be bullied until I became a Christian.

Reading the mutual admiration and respect shared by both conservatives and progressives over the passing of Sen. John McCain reminds of the principled politics that we lost and should pursue after once more. Sen. McCain reminded us that despite our political disagreements, we should always seek to humanize our rivals and have the courage to speak out against those who dehumanize others.